As a Christmas gift, I received the book *Dojo Wisdom for Writers* by Jennifer Lawler, a Tae Kwon Do practitioner who makes a living as a freelance writer--largely writing about martial arts (viz, this book, a similar one for mothers, a couple "Dummies" books, etc.). Being as this was given to me, a wannabe writer, by a relative who's taken up a martial art, there's no doubt Ms. Lawler nailed a market niche. Kudos to her on that.
The book itself is a pretty vapid collection of fortune-cookie wisdom stretched awfully thin to connect maxims from contemporary martial arts training to the pursuit of paying writing gigs. I've always found attempts to extrapolate general life lessons--or even worse, business strategies (shudder)--from Asian martial philosophies pretty tedious. An investment banker who quotes Sun-Tzu (and I've met a few) just seems like a yutz to me. Simply because you know what someone said, or what some translator said they said, doesn't mean you understand what was meant well enough to shoehorn it into any context you like. The value of a piece of advice lies not in who said it or why, but in what it inspires you to do (I think I got that from a SpongeBob cartoon).
As for this book, there are tidbits of practical wisdom ostensibly gleaned from martial arts practice that basically boil down to the importance of perseverence, but there's really nothing of concrete value to a would-be professional writer. No technical advice on diction or syntax. No samples of successful query letters. No recommendations for constructing character-defining dialog, or avoiding hackneyed descriptions, or arranging plot points. Acutal disscussion of craft is beyond the scope of this book. Interestingly, Ms. Lawler 'fesses up that she originally wanted to write fiction but gave it up for more saleable magazine articles. She's a writer in the same way that a guy who makes a good living narrating fire saftey videos is an actor. In a nutshell, she's someone who figured out a way to retool her interests into a career pumping out disposable little volumes filled with personal anecdotes and shallow observations--even elevating herself to "brand" status (the Holy Grail of trade publishing) in the process. That's certainly an impressive professional achievement; don't mean her books are all that great.
You could say I'm just envious. Durn right, I am.
